Breathe
by Amethyst Soul
Summary: Kida and Milo learn what it means to breathe as one


A/N: I just saw Atlantis for the first time yesterday and couldn't resist leaving the Zim fandom for a bit to write this fic. Not to say the movie was the greatest thing in the world- it's Disney, what do you expect?- but the premise was very creative. This is a tack-on from the scene where Kida is showing Milo the underwater mural.  
  
  
  
Breathe  
  
  
  
Whispers...  
  
Blunt thuds, from far away...  
  
The churning of water...  
  
Milo was encompassed by all of these; all that surrounded him- whispers, water, ...Kida- manifestations of his ever-dreaming mind? Or were they a reality to his surreal perceptions?  
  
Kida had brought him under here to look at the ancient writings of her people; to uncover the enigmas that no one else could begin to reveal. And this world, and this moment, and this girl- were they real?  
  
Milo read the information as fast as he could, slowly letting this new information process through his brain so that he could comprehend it. He peered at Kida's icy stone necklace, reflecting to her eyes, now icy blue from the radiance...  
  
Beautiful.  
  
The thought slipped through his mind so quickly that he didn't even have time to push it away. He gazed at her as she gazed at the crystal, thinking only that:  
  
Beautiful.  
  
He beckoned her to surface from the warm waters, his heart racing and a dull pain wrenching his lungs. He had no time to let his emotions cloud his discovery. "The heart of Atlantis..." he whispered, pushing all former thoughts about her away. He adjusted his glasses to tear his eyes away from her.  
  
"What?" Kida gasped, taking a moment to catch her own breath. It was cramped under the small pocket of air that she had found, and she swam closer to Milo to fit more snugly. Her foot brushed against his leg- he shuddered; she didn't notice.  
  
Milo continued, "It's the heart of Atlantis! That's what the shepherd was talking about; it wasn't a star, it was some kind of crystal..." he held up Kida's own crystal. The blue glow illuminated the crevice in a blazing, fiery blue light. "Like these! Don't you get it? The power source I've been looking for, the bright light you remember- they're the same thing!"  
  
Kida would have laughed at the sound of Milo's excitement but her mind was racing so quickly that she couldn't concentrate on anything else. "That cannot be," she protested stubbornly.  
  
"It's what's keeping all of these things- you- all of Atlantis alive," Milo insisted. She was one of the few people who believed in his "gibberish"- one of the few people who understood him. She could not fail him now that he had finally solved the puzzle.  
  
"Then... where is it now?"  
  
"I don't know, I don't know," all of Milo's former thoughts of Kida trickled away as the water trickled down his face. Slowly he forced himself to concentrate on the present task, "You'd think something this important would've been written in the journal. Unless..." he gasped, "The missing page."  
  
"The missing page?" her face fell. Unconsciously, she clenched Milo's arm for support. "That means..."  
  
"All isn't lost," he reassured her. "I'm sure the writings will reveal something more." Without another pause he ducked under the water, and Kida slowly loosened her grip on him. She longed to feel his warmth against her again and sighed, wishing she could concentrate more on this discovery. But ephemeral thoughts- dangerous thoughts- kept misting over her mind like the haze that appeared when the warm waters hit the air on cold nights.  
  
She took a deep breath and then dove under, following closely behind him. She often took dives under here, and her lungs and legs were well adjusted for such an exercise. Milo, however, looked as though he were just about to pass out.  
  
He frantically searched over the archaic text on the mural, visualizing scenes from the terrible /Mabel Mach/* which ran through his mind like moving picture slides. His head swam with thoughts of how nightmarish the real event must have been, especially to Kida. Kida- who had that memory chiseled into her mind for longer than he had lived; who had so much lost that day; who had to awaken each morning knowing things could never be the same again.  
  
Suddenly Milo swerved forward, unable to balance himself against the water any longer. He had been studying the words too long and forgotten all about air. His head, which now felt ten pounds heavier, frantically searched upwards for the crevice. It seemed so far away...  
  
Kida noticed Milo's struggle and grabbed him, suddenly, knowing that they might make it just in time if she swam as hard as she could. But she wasn't sure of that.  
  
So she held him by the shoulders and kissed him.  
  
Milo gasped into her mouth; welcomed the exchange of breath, the pressure of another human soul against his own lips, the brush of Kida's hands against his waist. He found himself rising, faster and faster as Kida pulled him upwards, a strong grip around his wiry frame.  
  
Once they surfaced under the dome-like crevice Milo inhaled deeply, feeling his lungs with pure, fresh air. He blushed, realizing what had happened below, and turned his head so that he did not meet Kida's glare. "Thank you, Kida. I guess I got a little carried away."  
  
Kida grabbed his chin and forced him to meet eyes with her. She stared at him fiercely and pushed him against to the wall of the dome. "Don't you /ever/ do that to me again, Milo Thatch! I don't care how involved you are in your work, I don't want you killing yourself over it- do you understand me?"  
  
Milo briefly wondered if she was only saving his life before. The kiss wasn't his first- he had been kissed before in high school by a girl named Katrina, a gesture only done to suffice a dare. Her kiss had been filled with such a passion, such vigor, that he thought the waters around them would boil and churn. But then again, it was a kiss to keep him from drowning- a gesture only done to suffice his life.  
  
Kida poked him. "Are you even listening to me?" she demanded.  
  
"Ye- yes, Kida," Milo nodded briskly. "I'm sorry."  
  
Kida peered at him. Had he felt it, too? He must have. "That bright red color is adorning his face again," she thought. She had seen it whenever he talked excitedly about the ancient scripture of her people, or had done something embarrassing- the strange way his skin self-painted itself rubicund- the color of blood.  
  
Milo tried backing away under her stare; the jeweled necklace illuminated her eyes as the color of ice but they weren't frosty with disdain. Instead they were warm, inviting, maybe even a little... longing? "No," Milo thought, and broke away from her stare. He was dreaming again, conjuring up what wasn't really there.  
  
But wasn't that what he was good at? He conjured up another world in his dreams- an underwater world, lost, captured in time, and now he was actually standing inside of it, swimming its waters, breathing its air. Could he conjure up feelings, as well, and turn them into absolutes? He stole a look at Kida as intrudingly as she had stolen his breath. Even though a few seconds ago she breathed air into him, that air vanished and he was left, breathless, by this dream-like entity before him.  
  
Kida gazed up and noticed that Milo had begun to breathe in harsh, raspy gasps. "Milo? Are you okay? You do not seem to be breathing well."  
  
Milo silently cursed himself for being so obvious. His lenses fogged up and he quickly dipped them into the water to clean them off. "I... I, um..."  
  
She risked asking, "Do you need me to help you breathe again?"  
  
He could have melted into the water at that point, but instead he nodded, and melted into Kida as she swarm forward, slowly, and brushed her lips lightly against his. She paused and waited to see how he would respond; he smiled and timidly took her hands into his. Together they leaned forward and exchanged breaths, their touch robbing each of their own air but exchanging into the other.  
  
Soon they were locked in a tight embrace; Milo's arms wrapped around Kida's waist and Kida's arms embraced around Milo's neck. Neither realized how long they treaded water there, exchanging breaths and touching souls, but suddenly time no longer mattered.  
  
Years of feeling alone in their own separate worlds, of wondering what was beyond the cages of their separate societies, and finally the two wanderers had found one another and formed their own world in the heart of each other.  
  
Milo's chest burst with an excitement he had never felt before, and he was close to tears knowing that this moment was happening- that Kida was happening. And Kida, who knew barely of true love, felt the shock ripple through Milo and then through herself and then through her glowing necklace- a glow that intensified as she pressed herself against him in hopes that he would never let her go. Her legs wrapped around Milo's and they sank into the water, breathing in and out and in and out-  
  
One form, one entity, one tangible human object.  
  
...the waters churned...  
  
...two hearts thudded in chorus through the water...  
  
...and whispers- silent professions- were exchanged in between the breathing of two souls, two hearts, two minds, molded-  
  
One.  
  
*The Great Flood... Kida said it in the movie; sorry if I bashed the spelling. A/N: I hope you liked it. I'm not much of a romance writer, hell- I'm not one for romance unless it involves death and bloody angst- but I think that satisfies my lonely girl heart for now ^.~ Please review. 


End file.
